ENRIQUE DIEMECKE, MUSIC DIRECTOR & CONDUCTOR

SymphonyFlint

Orchestra

ANTHONY ROSSANTHONY ROSS, CELLO, CELLO

JANUARY 11, 2020

C O N C E R T S P O N S O R SDrs. Paul & Barbara Adams

The Chan Family Dr. Victor & Inga Rabinkov

Dr. Stuart & Kathy Weiner

A Program of the Flint Institute of Music

ENR IQUE D I EMECKEMUS IC D I RECTOR & CONDUCTOR

Beyond the Stage

FL INT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAA Program of the Flint Institute of Music

JANUARY 9, 2021

The Flint Symphony Orchestra (FSO) is one of the finest orchestras of its size in the nation. Its rich 102-year history as a cultural icon in the community is testament to the dedication of world-class performance from the musicians and Flint and Genesee County audiences alike. The FSO has been performing under the baton of Maestro Enrique Diemecke for over 30 years now – one of the longest tenures for a Music Director in the country. Under the Maestro’s unwavering musical integrity and commitment to the community, the FSO has connected with audiences throughout southeast Michigan, delivering outstanding artistry and excellence.

Flint Symphony Orchestra2019 – 20 Season

WELCOME TO THE 2019 – 20 SEASON WITH YOUR FLINT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA!

Flint Institute of Music gratefully acknowledges the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation for their continued support. Learn more at Mott.org.

This program and/or service is funded in whole or in part by the Genesee County Arts Education and Cultural Enrichment Millage funds. Your tax dollars are at work.

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SEASON AT A GLANCERACHMANINOFF, MUSSORGSKY

SAT, OCT 12, 2019 @ 7:30PM Andrew von Oeyen, piano

SIBELIUS, RODRIGO, SAINT-SAËNS, RESPIGHI

SAT, NOV 9, 2019 @ 7:30PM Sharon Isbin, guitar

DVOŘÁK, BRAHMSMATINEE PERFORMANCESAT, JAN 11, 2020 @ 2PM

Anthony Ross, cello

BERNSTEIN, GERSHWIN,COPLAND, HANSON

SAT, FEB 15, 2020 @ 7:30PM Di Wu, piano

BEETHOVEN, SAINT-SAËNSSAT, MAR 14, 2020 @ 7:30PM

Wanting Zhao, piano2019 William C. Byrd Winner

TCHAIKOVSKY, BORODINSAT, APR 18, 2020 @ 7:30PM

Andrés Cárdenes, violinFlint Symphony Chorus

NUTCRACKERSAT, DEC 7, 2019 @ 7:30PMSUN, DEC 8, 2019 @ 3PM

HOLIDAY POPSSAT, DEC 21, 2019 @ 7PM

POPS I CONCERTSAT, MAY 2, 2020 @ 7:30PM

Enrique Diemecke Music Director & Conductor

Enrique Diemecke is Artistic General Director of the world-renowned Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and is the first internationally-acclaimed conductor to hold the position as artistic leader of the 110-year-old acoustical and architectural marvel, considered by many to be the greatest opera house in the world. Maestro Diemecke began his rise to musical leadership at the Teatro Colón as Music Director of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, an anchor ensemble of the theater. He continues at the helm of the Philharmonic an unprecedented 15 years, and has overseen all artistic activities of opera, concerts and ballet, since February of 2017. Maestro Diemecke is delighted to anticipate his 31st season as Music Director of the award-winning Flint Symphony Orchestra this season.

Enrique Diemecke enjoys an international recording, operatic and concert career. He brings an electrifying balance of passion, intellect and technique to his performances. Warmth, pulse and spontaneity are all hallmarks of his conducting – conducting that has earned him an international reputation for performances that are riveting in their sweep and dynamism. In the words of The New York Times, Diemecke is a conductor of “fierceness and authority.” A noted interpreter of the works of Mahler, Maestro Diemecke has been awarded a Mahler Society medal for his performances of the composer’s complete symphonies. Maestro Diemecke is a frequent guest of orchestras throughout the world, most notably the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, French National Orchestra and many more. Maestro Diemecke is an experienced conductor of opera, having served as Music Director of the Bellas Artes Opera of Mexico from 1984-1990, where he led more than 20 productions including Faust, La bohème, Salome, Elektra, Ariadne auf Naxos, Der fliegende Hollander, Rigoletto, Turandot, Madama Butterfly and Roméo et Juliette. He has since returned as a guest conductor with new productions of Lohengrin, Boris Godunov and Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. Maestro Diemecke returned to opera as he opened the 2007-2008 season of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires with a new production of Werther, followed by performances of Massenet’s Le Jongleur de Notre Dame with tenor Roberto Alagna in Montpellier, which was released by Deutsche Grammophon and awarded the prestigious Grand Prix de l’Academie du Disque Lyrique. He is a regular guest of the famed Teatro Zarzuela in Madrid, and was awarded the

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Jean Fontaine Orpheus d’Or Gold Medal for “best vocal music recording” by France’s Academy of Lyric Recordings for his recording of Donizetti’s The Exiles of Siberia with the L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Montpellier-Languedoc-Roussillon. Maestro Diemecke was previously honored with a Gold Medal from the Academy of Lyric Recordings with the Bruno Walter Orpheus d’Or Prize for “Best Opera Conductor” for his live recording of Mascagni’s Parisina, from the Radio France Festival. With 20 years at the helm of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, Maestro Diemecke led the ensemble on a ten-city tour of the United States, culminating with a program of Latin American masterworks at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Maestro Diemecke is an accomplished composer and orchestral arranger, and has conducted his Die-Sir-E, during the Mexican National Symphony Orchestra tour of the U.S. in 1999. The Die-Sir-E was commissioned by the Radio France Festival for the World Cup Final Concert in France in 1998. Maestro Diemecke was commissioned to write a tone poem

for the Flint Symphony Orchestra, and his works Chacona a Chávez and Guitar Concerto have received many performances both in Europe and in the United States. During the 2001-2002 season, he gave the world premiere of his work Camino y vision, dedicated to President Vincente Fox, with the Tulsa Philharmonic. Maestro Diemecke’s recording with the Flint Symphony Orchestra of the 1896 version of Mahler’s First Symphony (which includes the subsequently deleted “Blumine” movement) was nominated for a Grammy Award. Born in Mexico City, Enrique Diemecke comes from a large family of classical musicians. He began to play the violin at the age of six studying for many years with the legendary violinist Henryk Szeryng. At the age of nine he added french horn, piano and percussion to his studies. Mr. Diemecke attended Catholic University in Washington, D.C. and continued his studies with Charles Bruck at the Pierre Monteux School for Advanced Conductors on a scholarship granted by Madame Monteux.■

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Members of the string section listed after the principal chairs rotate seating throughout the season.

FIRST VIOLINJudy Lin Wu ConcertmasterZeljko Milicevic

Associate Concertmaster In Memory of Katherine Yeotis, Endowed Chair

Jennifer BergEmelyn BashourTracy DunlopMolly HughesBonita Sweda

In Memory of Robert J. Breeden by the Breeden Family, Endowed ChairLucy AlessioDaniel Winnick

In Memory of Helen Davenport Kleinpell, Endowed Chair

Michael BechtelSander Kostallari

In Memory of Barbara Walters, Endowed ChairDaniel StachyraCyril ZilkaDebra Terry

SECOND VIOLINAlesia Byrd Johnson

PrincipalLorrie Gunn Acting Assistant PrincipalJanet LyuSvetlana TsivinskayaChase Ward

In Memory of Cornelia H. Norton, Endowed Chair

SECOND VIOLIN (CONT.)Joseph DellerJunqi TangMaria BuccoFlorina PetrescuSofiya Levchenko

VIOLAJanine Bradbury

PrincipalTonya Ketzler, Ketzler Florist, Endowed Chair

Christine Beamer Assistant Principal

Jacqueline HansonHannah Breyer

In Memory of Cornelia H. Norton, Endowed Chair

Alycia WilderAlice Risov

In Memory of Harry Sutton, Endowed Chair

Nancy MarttilaMatthew Forsleff

CELLOJudith Vander Weg

PrincipalIn Memory of Anna Paulina Koegel, Endowed Chair

Alexis Turkalo Assistant Principal

Timothy NicholiaJinhyun Kim

CELLO (CONT.)Thurston Matthews In Memory of Evelyn Shores Hall, Endowed Chair Julia Ford Edwards

In Memory of Henrietta A. Eickhorst, Endowed Chair

Wendy StuartNancy Chaklos

BASSGregg Emerson Powell

PrincipalJon Luebke

Assistant PrincipalDerrick Tietz

In Memory of Cornelia H. Norton, Endowed Chair

Robert RohwerChantel Leung

In Honor of Tom Glasscock, Endowed Chair

Craig W. MartinFrederick Dapprich

FLUTEStephanie Hegedus

Acting PrincipalIn Memory of Frances Willson Thompson, Endowed Chair

Scott GraddyIn Loving Memory of Allan E. Walters by Barbara Walters

PICCOLOScott Graddy

Photographs or sound recordings of these performances, or the possession of any device for visual or sound recording, are prohibited inside the auditorium without the express written consent of management. The Flint Institute of Music is an equal opportunity employer and provides programs and services without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex or handicap. Programs of the Flint Institute of Music are made possible with the support of the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

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Flint Symphony OrchestraPersonnel

OBOELindabeth Binkley

PrincipalTimothy Michling

In Memory of Tom Zorn by Family and Friends of FIM, Endowed Chair

CLARINETKeith Dwyer PrincipalNicholas Thompson

BASSOONRoger Maki-Schramm PrincipalTimothy Abbott

CONTRABASSOONDean Zimmerman

FRENCH HORNCarrie Banfield-Taplin

PrincipalIn Memory of the late Joseph D. & Almeda B. Hunter,Endowed Chair

Robin Von WaldAssistant Principal

Katherine WidlarKurt CiviletteClinton Webb

TRUMPETMichael McGowan

Acting PrincipalIn Memory of Lucy Schultz, Endowed Chair

Eric Fontan

TROMBONEJohn Upton PrincipalZongxi Li

BASS TROMBONEGreg Lanzi

In Honor of Bruce & Barbara Mackey, Endowed Chair

TUBAJoseph DeMarsh Principal

TIMPANITerence Farmer

Principal

PERCUSSIONChuck Ricotta Principal

PERSONNEL MANAGERGregg Emerson Powell

LIBRARIANAlexis Turkalo

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Lisa Koegel welcomes and recognizes our concert sponsors this evening. Lisa is a member of the Flint Symphony Advisory Committee.

Welcoming YouThis Evening

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T H E F S O . O R GFlint Symphony OrchestraProgram

Antonín Dvořák(1841 - 1904)

Enrique Diemecke, Music Director & ConductorGuest Artist Anthony Ross, cello

Concerto for Violoncello, Op. 104, B Minor

I. AllegroII. Adagio ma non troppoIII. Finale: Allegro moderato

Anthony Ross, cello

C L A S S I C A L C O N C E R T S E R I E S S P O N S O R - W h i t i n g F o u n d a t i o n

CONCERT SPONSORS - Drs. Paul & Barbara Adams, The Chan Family, Dr. Victor & Inga Rabinkov, Dr. Stuart & Kathy Weiner

GUEST ARTIST SPONSORS - Attorney William Shaheen & Susan Shaheen, The Chan Family

Video Equipment Provided by AVC Services, George Boehringer

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Principal Cello Anthony Ross joined the Minnesota Orchestra in 1988 and assumed the principal cello post in 1991. He has been a soloist many times with the Orchestra, performing concertos by Schumann, Dvořák, Victor Herbert, James MacMillan, Beethoven, Saint-Saëns, Elgar, Bloch and Shostakovich, as well as many chamber works. He was most recently featured as soloist in January 2018 performing Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme. In recent seasons Ross has performed Prokofiev’s Sinfonia concertante for Cello and Orchestra, the Walton Cello Concerto and the Brahms Double Concerto, the latter alongside former First Associate Concertmaster Sarah Kwak. In April 2014, he was soloist in performances of Eric Whitacre’s The River Cam, with the composer

conducting. At Sommerfest 2014 he performed Prokofiev’s Sonata for Cello and Piano with Sommerfest Artistic Director Andrew Litton. Before joining the Minnesota Orchestra, Ross was principal cello of the Rochester Philharmonic. Away from Orchestra Hall, he is active as a chamber musician, festival performer and educator. He is a member of Accordo, a chamber group made up of principal string players from the Minnesota Orchestra and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He also performs with the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota. He has appeared in the Mostly Mozart, Music in the Vineyards, Cactus Pear (San Antonio), Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society (Madison) and Orcas Island festivals, and has performed on stages from Pensacola, Florida, to Rhodes, Greece. He has taught at the Eastman School of Music, the Aspen Festival and the Grand Teton orchestra seminar. Ross’ recordings include Bernstein’s Three Meditations with the Minnesota Orchestra under Eiji Oue, the George Lloyd Cello Concerto with the Albany Symphony under David Alan Miller, and works of Rachmaninoff and Elliott Carter for Boston Records. A graduate of Indiana University, Ross earned a master’s degree at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. In 1982, he was awarded the bronze medal at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition, and he received McKnight Fellowships in 2001 and 2005. Together with his wife Beth Rapier, the Minnesota Orchestra’s assistant principal cello, Ross produces the annual Harmony for Habitats benefit concert at St. John’s Episcopal Church in south Minneapolis.■

T H E F S O . O R GAnthony Ross, celloGuest Artist

Concerto for Violoncello, Op. 104, B MinorANTONÍN DVOŘÁK (1841 - 1904)

In 1891, Antonín Dvořák received an offer from theNew York socialite Jeanette Thurber to come to the United States and become the Director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City for the (at that time) lavish salary of $15,000 per year. During his tenure in New York (1892-1895), Dvořák met and taught young American musicians, including the African-American composer Harry Burleigh (1866-1949) who introduced him to spirituals and other music indigenous to America. The music he heard through Burleigh and others bore marked similarities to the folk music of his own Bohemian homeland. In writing about the melodies of indigenous American music, Dvořák said:

“…These can be the foundation of a serious and original school of composition, to be developed in the United States. These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil. They are the folk songs of America and your composers must turn to them."

While his fall and winter were occupied with the day-to-day business of teaching and administration in a foreign city, he felt a certain amount of homesickness for Bohemia, and had planned to return there once his duties for that academic year had concluded. In conversation with his assistant, Josef Kovarik, Dvořák learned that the small town of Spillville, Iowa, had been settled by Czech immigrants and the majority of the population still spoke Czech. Instead of braving the Atlantic crossing to return to Bohemia, Dvořák headed west to Spillville, where he spent the summer of 1893. It was here that Dvořák felt the most at home, a reminder of the life he had left behind when he moved to New York. He frequently performed as the organist at St. Wenceslaus Church, fished in the Turkey River, and could often be seen toting a bucket full of beer (one of his favorite pastimes, along with train spotting) from the local brewery to his cottage.

Dvořák’s compositions from his American sojourn

tend to mirror those two locations. On the one hand, some works display his absorption of those indigenous American melodies, like the New World Symphony, the American String Quartet, the American Suite for orchestra, Op. 98 and the Sonatina for violin and piano, Op. 100. In contrast, Dvořák also wrote music that reveal a nostalgic yearning for his native land, works like the magnificent String Quintet, Op. 97, the Biblical Songs, and the Cello Concerto. It seems significant that the nickname of Dvořák’s Ninth Symphony is “From the New World,” implying that the composer is still a visitor, and that, for all his success in New York, he still feels the pull of his Czech homeland. For a work whose sound world was far closer to Bohemia than to the New World, the initial inspiration for the Cello Concerto was an American one. In March of 1894, Dvořák attended a concert in New York where composer Victor Herbert, one of Dvořák’s colleagues at the National Conservatory, premiered his own Second Cello Concerto with the Philharmonic-Symphony of New York. While we know Herbert today as the composer of operettas like Naughty Marietta and Babes in Toyland, at the turn of the century he was greatly respected as a cellist, conductor and a composer of serious concert music. Intriguingly, Herbert drew inspiration for his concerto from hearing Dvořák’s New World in the previous year; the two works share a home key of E minor. Dvořák was particularly struck by how effectively Herbert wrote for the full orchestra so that the cello was never buried by the orchestra, but could be heard clearly throughout. Herbert’s concerto seemed to spark Dvořák’s creativity, and he began work on his own cello concerto in November of 1894. While working on the slow movement, Dvořák received news that would tug at his heartstrings and make him long to return to Bohemia: his sister-in-law, Josefina Kaunitzová, had fallen gravely ill. Dvořák had fallen in love with Josefina thirty years before, but his love was unrequited and he eventually married her younger sister Anna. The news of Josefina’s illness brought long-buried feelings to the surface. In tribute to her, Dvořák included a reference to “Kéž duch můj sám” (Leave me alone), from his Four Songs, Op. 82, one of Josephina’s favorites among his works. Though Dvořák completed the concerto in February of 1895,

Program Notes January 11, 2020

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of the second theme, heard first in the solo horn, and later sung rhapsodically by the soloist. The sweet lyricism of the slow movement is interrupted by the anguished quotation from “Kéž duch můj sám,” with soloist and orchestra engaged in passionate dialogue. The opening woodwind chorale returns on three horns, restoring calm that remains unruffled to the end of the movement. The ominous march that opens the finale is transformed into a dancing rondo theme for the soloist. At the coda, the tempo slows, and the soloist and orchestra wistfully recall both the first and second movements. When the soloist’s final phrase fades to silence, the orchestra dances its way to the exuberant final cadence.▪

Program Notes January 11, 2020 Josefina’s death shortly after his return to Europe that summer prompted Dvořák to rewrite the ending of the finale, which includes a wistful recollection of “Kéž duch můj sám” in the solo violin as a parting tribute to the love of his youth. Dvořák had signed a contract with the National Conservatory that ran through the spring of 1896, but his homesickness so overwhelmed him upon his return to Prague that he cabled Mrs. Thurber to be released from his contract. She gracefully but regretfully did so, and Dvořák remained in Europe for the rest of his life. Just as Dvořák had asked the great violinist Joseph Joachim for technical advice when writing his Violin Concerto, so now he turned his friend Hanuš Wihan, longtime friend and cellist of the Bohemian Quartet to advise him on the technical aspects of the concerto. Wihan had been pestering Dvořák for years to compose a cello concerto, so he was happy to lend his expertise. While most of their collaboration was productive and amiable, the two musicians clashed when Wihan wanted to include a lengthy virtuoso cadenza in the third movement, an idea decidedly at odds with Dvořák’s intentions. Wihan evidently was so adamant about his suggested changes that Dvořák had to caution his publisher, Simrock, to guard against any meddling by the cellist: I shall only give you my work if you promise not to allow anybody to make any changes — my friend Wihan not excepted — without my knowledge and consent, and this includes the cadenza which Wihan has added to the last movement. … I told Wihan straight away when he showed it to me that it was impossible to stick bits on like that. The finale closes gradually diminuendo, like a sigh — with reminiscences of the first and second movements — the solo dies down to pianissimo — then swells again and the last bars are taken up by the orchestra and the whole concludes in stormy mood. That was my idea and I cannot depart from it. The concerto is remarkable for its epic length and emotional depth. The opening movement’s somber introduction in murmuring clarinets and bassoons is a portent of its defiant, dramatic proclamation at the soloist’s first entrance. The fireworks from both soloist and orchestra contrast with the warm lyrical effusion

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Program Notes January 11, 2020

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Program Notes by Dr. David Cole © 2020

Dr. David C. Cole, the program annotator for the Flint Symphony Orchestra, has had a distinguishedcareer as a conductor, violinist, music educator and writer. He served as the conductor of the Southwest Florida Symphony’s Youth Symphony, the top ensemble of the three orchestras in the Southwest Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra program, from 2012 - 2017. He also served as the conductor for the Symphony’s Young People’s Concerts and Majors for Minors programs, and he has also served as the Symphony’s Education Director and Youth Orchestra Manager. In his tenure with the Southwest Florida Symphony’s Youth Symphony, he led them in appearances at Carnegie Hall in New York City in April of 2014, and at the Capital Orchestra Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. in February of 2016. Dr. Cole’s recent guest conducting appearances include concerts with the Marquette Symphony (Michigan), the Colombian National Conservatory Orchestra, the Pleven Philharmonic (Bulgaria), the Orquestra de Camera de Bellas Artes (Mexico City), the Baylor Symphony Orchestra, the El Alto Municipal Youth Orchestra (Bolivia) and the Cincinnati Metropolitan Orchestra.